Dear RYS,

The article by Nancy Kalish is about elementary school. She writes:
"according to guidelines endorsed by the National Education Association,
teachers should assign no more than ten minutes per grade level per night
(that's ten minutes total for a first-grader, 30 minutes for a
third-grader)."

If we extrapolate we get that a 12th grader should be doing 120 minutes or 2
hours of homework per night. My gut feeling is that is about right. They are
in school six hours per day five days a week, plus two hours of homework
(not study hall!) is a 40 hour work week.

In college they are in class about 15 hours per week. Plus 30 hours of study
time is 45 hours per week. Now 30 = 5 x 6. So, that is five hours per day
six days a week. Make sure your kids realize this!

There are many studies that success in college is closely related to how
much time students studied in high school. James Rosenbaum, a sociologist at
Northwestern University wrote:

...research shows that effort during high school is absolutely essential.
Take homework, for example: Students doing no homework end up with 1.2 years
less education and 19 percent lower earnings than average. Students doing 15
hours or more a week of homework attain almost 1.5 more years of education
and attain 16 percent higher earnings than average. This 2.7-year spread in
educational attainment and 35 percent spread in earnings are both extremely
large... Rosenbaum, American Eduactor, Spring 2004

See also Daniel T. Willingham,  American Eduactor, Spring 2004